Previews

God of War II

No, Ancient Greece didn't have antidepressants. Kratos returns to PS2, and he's more pissed than ever.

Spiffy:

Looks just as good as the last game, if not better.

Iffy:

No hands-on time to judge for ourselves.

Normally, a preview like this would contain a spoiler alert, but with God of War now retailing for $19.99, there are few excuses for PS2 gamers to have not played it. Having said that, God of War II kicks off with everyone's favorite antihero at the helm of Mt. Olympus, having dispatched of Ares and taken his place as the new god of war. The trailer that (ahem) leaked onto YouTube and made its rounds on the Internet showed off a taste of what gamers can expect, but not everything. Sony made a room full of gaming journalists privy to what everyone will see next February a few weeks ago at the Director's Guild of America building in Hollywood. We couldn't reveal it until E3 time, but here's a sliver of what you can anticipate from what we saw during a ten-minute runthrough of the E3 demo.

No one could reveal much in the way of the plot, but it sounds as though Kratos, as a deity, somehow loses his god status and must fight to get it back. That's far from confirmed, but considering that he can die (as director Corey Barlow, taking over from David Jaffe, accidentally did while solving a puzzle), it's safe to say that something goes awfully awry on Mt. Olympus. However, it was revealed that in the beginning of the game, he will have both the armor of a god and the power that accompanies it. The action seems to pick up exactly where the first game left off, with Kratos ruling supreme over warfare up until the fateful occurrence happens.

The demo opens with Kratos atop a griffin. In keeping with the interactive nature of the first game, our intrepid antihero can hop from creature to creature and kill both enemy and the winged vehicle upon which he rides. That's right: that wing-hacking from the trailer is very real and is very much a part of the game at this point.

The environments still look stellar and seem to really squeeze the PS2 hardware equally as hard as the first game did. The amount of detail in the environments is quite breath-taking to see, as forests look vivid and lush. Temples look just as detailed as they did in the last game, as well. The post-flight action in the demo deals with Kratos' attempt to break through a gate guarded by Medusa's gaze. Never one to be phased by deadly mythological creatures, Kratos must find a way to break through. It turns out that the reflective properties of the Golden Fleece will bounce Medusa's gaze right back at the gate and turn it to stone. However, the altar upon which the nearby Fleece is stowed is also surrounded by a deadly river. And that's where the new game really looks to shine.

Through an entertaining course of events, Kratos must destroy a temple entrance to create a bridge to the altar. He's got one heavy stone to tilt the edifice in the direction he wants, but it's not quite heavy enough. As a result, he must enter the temple and overcome violence and villainy to figure out how to find something else to tip the entrance over to create his bridge. After seven minutes of solving puzzles, crossing moats, and swinging on ledges, he finds another stone within the temple. Upon pushing it out, the stone falls out, and upon jumping after it, Kratos finds himself exactly where he started: in front of the temple. As a result, the stone is heavy enough to tilt the entrance, knock it over until the rubble can function as a bridge, and get the Golden Fleece to reflect off of the gate. Sound complicated? In a way, it is, but the experience of watching it and actually doing it seems like it will be exceptionally intuitive, which will come as a relief to many action gamers.